My Husband Repays Kindness with Enmity

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When Crown Prince Xiao Han returned from his northern campaign, he brought back a lone orphan girl. She was gaunt and haggard, with only a pair of bright, unyielding eyes.

From then on, the Yan royal family had a princess by another surname, named Zhaolu. She studied alongside the crown prince, grew up with him, and stayed by his side.

When Zhaolu was fifteen, the emperor summoned the newly crowned top scholar and asked what reward he wanted. Someone nearby joked, "Why not marry the princess?" Within half a year, the new scholar was sent to a bitterly cold frontier, his career badly damaged.

Zhaolu was sixteen. Once she came of age, she could be betrothed. She and Pei Shao, the crown prince's companion in his studies, had been childhood friends and had long shared each other's feelings. They were only waiting for her to come of age so Pei Shao could ask the emperor for her hand.

On the day she came of age, Zhaolu waited, full of joy, for Pei Shao to propose. Instead, a powerful hand seized her at the banquet and dragged her into the Eastern Palace.

The man before her stared with eyes as cold as ice. "You want to marry someone while I'm away? Have you thought about the consequences?"

Zhaolu's expression did not change. She glared at him with hatred. "Tianqi values propriety above all. Elder Brother has always been the very picture of decorum, with a fine reputation. Can you bear the blame for this?"

As if guessing what she would say next, he let out a low laugh and leaned close to her neck, his voice intimate and brazen. "We aren't on the imperial family register, so we aren't siblings. And you've probably forgotten who pulled you out of the mud. Since you refuse, then we'll sink together."

Later, he truly ignored her cries and took her down with him.

A gentle breeze stirred the hanging curtains around the bed. The palace attendants were kept outside the door. They saw the crown prince emerge from the canopy with a woman in his arms, her hands delicate and her waist slender. The attendants immediately lowered their heads, but none saw that the woman had the same face as the princess.

Han, the crown prince's name, means "the first light of dawn."

When dawn first breaks, Zhaolu appears.

***Story Blurb***

Yun Fenfen, owner of the Yun Family Tea Shop in Jixian, is kindhearted and understanding, but she doesn't always think things through.

To save the pile of "mess" her late father left her, she listens to someone's terrible advice and ends up crossing Cheng Ze, the Ministry of Works vice minister feared by everyone in the capital.

The emperor wants to build a palace and tear down her home. With no other choice, she ventures into the tiger's den to cling to Cheng Ze's leg, hoping to save her house from demolition.

But things don't seem to be going the way she expected.

Why isn't the "King of Hell" everyone talks about anything like the man she met?

And it turns out there's more to the demolition than meets the eye.

Ever since Yun Fenfen gave away the "good-luck" coin her father left her, her luck has worsened, and she seems to have lost her wits too.

She tries every way she can think of to win over the vice minister from the capital, only to discover he doesn't want her land at all. What he wants is... her?

In public, he is proper and restrained. In private, he showers her with sweet words.

Has this Vice Minister Cheng taken leave of his senses?

Then one day, she notices a string of beads on his wrist. The more she looks, the more familiar it seems.

Yun Fenfen: My lord, this looks a lot like the one I gave a big brother when I was little.

Cheng Ze: Is it possible that I'm that big brother?

Vice Minister Cheng's reputation is unmatched in the capital. He's decisive and ruthless, never leaving anyone room to maneuver. Yet few know what he went through as a boy.

In that painful memory, there was someone he could never forget, someone who still came to him in his dreams.

The trouble is, she's a bit slow. He has dropped hints to her several times, but she never gets them.

In the end, he has to roll up his sleeves and go straight to her.

◎A story about a stubborn holdout and the leader of the demolition crew, with a happy ending.

◎The setting is fictional, though many official titles are based on real ones. Please don't scrutinize them too closely; consider them the author's own invention.

◎Both leads are each other's first and only partner. Happy ending.

Theme: Live well, and love the people around you.